RCC doing a great job: Tharoor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shashi Tharoor MP, who visited the various departments of the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) here on Wednesday, said that he would take necessary steps to raise the stature of RCC into a National Cancer Institute (NCI). He said that he would present a proposal to this effect before the Union Health Minister in New Delhi soon. Tharoor said that he was impressed by the quality of care, cleanliness and infrastructure at the institution. He was speaking at a function organised by the Division of Palliative Medicine, where he distributed certificates to the candidates who were successful in the examination for the ‘Certificate in essentials of palliative care’, a distance learning programme conducted by the Palliative Medicine Department.  Tharoor, stressing on the need not only to add years to life but also ‘life to years’, said that relieving pain restores dignity of the human being. He said that he was particularly impressed by the uniqueness of RCC in manufacturing oral morphine to be given free to patients in severe pain.  Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern Hospice Movement, also found a mention in Tharoor’s speech. Quoting her, he said: “The way people die lives in the minds of those who live on,” and therefore it is important to have good home care services so that patients can die in dignity, where they belong. Quality of life and quality of death are equally important, he added.  Lauding the NGOs’ ‘Care Plus’, which takes care to the doorstep of the patient and  ‘Ashraya’, that works among the RCC patients, especially children, Tharoor saidhe was impressed by the weekly ‘Tele-clinic for Palliative Care’ connecting the RCC at Thiruvananthapuram and a rural hospice at Adimali.  RCC Director Dr Paul Sebastian and additional professor and head of Palliative Medicine Dr Cherian Koshy also spoke at the function.